Just as e-commerce has been a sales booster for some sectors, such as the textile, leather and goods industry or the entertainment industry; It has also had an opposite effect on other commercial activities and an example of this is watchmaking, specifically, for dealers with a physical store selling Swiss brands.

In the last five years this type of stores went from selling US $25,6 million to US $17.3 million, this means that the turnover contracted 32.4%. This scenario has been somewhat recurrent in the sector, since between January and June of this year, traders achieved US $6.8 million, 20% less than in the same period of 2017 when the figure was US $8.5 million.

“This is due to different motives, but one that has sounded quite a bit in recent years is the watch trade on the Internet. Without knowing the origin of what is being sold, there are offered discounts per unit of more than 50%, so it has certainly generated a blow for those who operate physical stores. In addition, there is no VAT, sales are not controlled, then anyone can arrive and offer unattended products,” said Sterling Jewellery manager Tomás Roque.

Precisely, in Instagram there were accounts, with more than 15,000 followers, such as luxury watches Colombia, style & fashion, enters others, which came from working a maximum of six months and then disappeared. These sites offer brands such as Omega, TAG Heuer, among others, up to 60% below what they are in the physical stores. Same effect that is permanently seen on internet pages.

It should be noted that the main Swiss houses like Rolex, Invicta, Piaget, to name a few, have pointed out that electronic commerce does not have authorization of distribution with third parties, because when online sales are treated they do through their own pages.

It is difficult to estimate how much electronic commerce has impacted traditional stores, because there is no authority to measure these sites, although the effect on their sales is a decline of at least 20% per year on the market.

“Many times it does not mean that they are replicas of the original pieces, because something that also happens is that sites that have the negotiation directly with Switzerland, fail to report good levels of sales, then buy at the price of distributor and opt to sell On the Internet, you save the staff, rent a point, and can access discounts,” added Roque.

Cartier and TAG Heuer lead niche Premium

Luxury watchmaking had a better semester than the market in general. The sales advance was 2.7%, since between January and June of 2017 the turnover of the high-end brands reached US $7.3 million and in the first six months of 2018 up to US $7.5 million. In the category of luxury, of the top 10 brands, sales (according to market share) are at the head of Cartier, with 22%; Then TAG Heuer, with 18%; Rolex, with 15%; Invicta, with 11%; and Hublot, with 8%, in the fifth place. The market can also be measured from another edge and is with the list of the five most remembered brands. In that ranking is Rolex in the first place, and follow Cartier, TAG Heuer, Omega and Invicta.